On February 8, 1865, Martin Delany, born as a free man in Charles Town, Virginia January 24, 1812, was commissioned as a major in the US Army, becoming the first African-American field officer.
Growing up, Delany and his siblings learned to read and write by their mother, despite the prohibition of educating black people. His mother moved them to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania to ensure their continued freedom and learning. His father joined them a year later, after he was allowed to buy his freedom.
At 19, Martin traveled to Pittsburgh, where he attended the Cellar School of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and apprenticed with a white physician. He was one of four black men accepted into Harvard Medical School, but were dismissed after white supremacists complained.
Delany continued to be active in medicine and politics, attending his first National Negro Convention in 1835. He began publishing The Mystery, the first black-owned newspaper printed west of the Appalachians.
In 1856, he moved his family to Chatham, Ontario, Canada, where he assisted in the Underground Railroad, helping escaped slaves who reached freedom in Canada.
During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln called for a military draft. Delany began recruiting black men for the Union Army, and raised thousands of enlistees, forming the new United States Colored Troops. In early 1865, Delany was granted an audience with Lincoln and proposed a corps of black men led by black officers, who could win over black Southerners to the Union.
He was commissioned as major February 8, 1865 as the first black major in the US Army, and achieving the highest rank a black man would reach during the Civil War.
Read more on this amazing man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Delany
